Legendary physicist Stephen Hawking dies at 76
Stephen Hawking / Retuers
British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76, the U.K. Press Association reported on Tuesday, citing a spokesman for the family.
The UK’s Press Association reported his death, citing a spokesman for the family.
Hawking’s formidable mind probed the very limits of human understanding both in the vastness of space and in the bizarre sub-molecular world of quantum theory, which he said could predict what happens at the beginning and end of time.
His work ranged from the origins of the universe itself, through the tantalizing prospect of time travel to the mysteries of space’s all-consuming black holes.
But the power of his intellect contrasted cruelly with the weakness of his body, ravaged by the wasting motor neuron disease he contracted at the age of 21.
Hawking was confined for most of his life to a wheelchair. As his condition worsened, he had to resort to speaking through a voice synthesizer and communicating by moving his eyebrows.
The disease spurred him to work harder but also contributed to the collapse of his two marriages, he wrote in a 2013 memoir “My Brief History.”
In the book he related how he was first diagnosed: “I felt it was very unfair - why should this happen to me,” he wrote. (Reuters)